My Gosh! No Car Wash

9/19/08 Update:

In ACATT's continuing coverage of car washing rights being hosed away, now comes news from the Oregonian newspaper that Clark County residents in Washington State may be the next group to lose their rights to wash a car in their driveway. The danger here is runoff. No, not the car running off while being washed, but rather the soap, chemicals and oil that can end up in storm drains that flow to waterways or "'What goes on the street goes into the creek." No tickets are being issued yet and it's unlikely that they will be enforcing any ban in the near future. In the meantime they ask folks to use non-phosphorous soaps and to wash their boats and cars over grassy areas where the water can be naturally filtered.

Original 12/5/07 Post:

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about local municipalities cracking down on certain types of car washing such as fund raisers held in parking lots and even cars being washed in front of homes. The concern isn't so much about the water usage, as it is about the sudsy runoff that impacts wildlife. The preferred method is for car owners to use commercial car washes that recycle their water and funnel their waste chemicals into the sewer rather than the storm drain.

Fund raiser car washes and lathering up your ride on a Sunday afternoon almost seem like American rights of passage. A wholesale ban on the practice does seem a bit draconian. However, no one wants to see a bunch of belly up fish in their nearby stream, so there have to be alternatives.

Besides the obvious of using a commercial car wash there are some alternatives. One easy method to help contain the runoff is to wash your car on grass, so that the all the water doesn't immediately run into the storm drain. Depending on the makeup of your lawn, your car could sink into the ground leaving unsightly tracks and turn your lawn mowing experience into a Baja 1000, bouncing frenzy. Also, using a car cover would cut down on the number of times that you need to wash your car. There are also waterless cleaning products. The WSJ article mentions a product called Green Earth Waterless Carwash, but I'd also refer you to our friends across the pond who have been dealing with "hosepipe bans" for some time now.

If my $300 subscription to Auto Express has taught me anything, it's that water is a precious resource in England. Seemingly, it must only rain whenever I visit my family in London. In any case, since you can't use a hose to wash your car a whole bunch of waterless products have appeared on the market. Auto Express recently rated the products and found Amor All's "Clean & Shine Wipes" to be the winner. Here's what AE had to say:

Ever since their launch a couple of years ago, we’ve been fans of Car Wash Wipes – now called Clean & Shine Wipes. They are a favourite of our road test team, and it’s easy to see why, as they lift dirt without damage and take no more effort than running a sponge over the car.

At 40p a go, the big wipes – made from stronger material than those for the interior – work out cheaper than spray-on cleaners, too. There’s no need for leathering, and they leave a decent shine with a water-repellent finish. An easy winner.

I should warn you that the Armor All product seems to have been pulled from the US market. There is no mention of the product on Armor All's US website and if you read this and this you'll find folks wondering where it went. It probably wasn't a big siller here in the states. If you Google "waterless carwash" you'll find a bajillion alternatives out there. How well they all work is undoubtedly a subject for great debate.

I have tried a few waterless cleaning products in the past and unless my car was only lightly dusty I felt that I was hurting the finish. It just felt wrong not the spritz the car with water and then go at it with a soapy bucket. I could almost hear the clearcoat screaming in agony. With Nissan's "self healing" paint, Mercedes-Benz's nano-particle clearcoat and other developments, car makers may find a way to help us out. If paint finishes can become resistant to the extra abrasion that may accompany waterless products, then kicking the sprayer habit may be less of a difficult decision.

For now I'll continue lightly spritz the car, then use a bucket of soapy water and sprayer. I find that I don't have to use that much soap in first place and that using this method results in only a small amount of run off to the street. At the end I dump the bucket of water on the lawn.

Not surprisingly, the professional car wash industry is pretty excited about all of this. You can read a breathless review of the WSJ article here.

The WSJ article can be found here.

You can peruse Auto Express' review of the top three waterless products here.

Nearby Fairfax, CA is looking into the runoff issue, here's a recent story about their proposed ban on car washing.